What a shitty afternoon. Travis McCauley, one of the local boys, and the leader of the rag tag group pulled me aside when we were taking stock of tomorrow's workload. "Come here, Tanner," he said grimly (Tanner was the nickname he gave me because I came to Kentucky with the type of Florida tan that only men who work outside seem to have). "Something you should see." With that he led me slightly off Main Street into a culvert where a single car was sitting, half covered with snow.
"It's the Cahills, I went to school with Brenda." I half slid down the culvert and peered through the driver's side window. There was a man and woman in the front seat, looking as if they were resting for a few hours during a long trip. In the back seat I could see two young boys and a German Shepherd that spent his last hours lending his body heat to the kids. "Troy is his name, the boys are Timmy and Tommy. Rufus loved those kids, poor fucking dog." I saw Travis tear up a little as he gazed at the frozen family.
"Jesus, Travis, I'm sorry you had to see this." I couldn't stop staring at the kids and the dog that tried in vain to save them. "Let's get back to the road, I'll radio this in. Fucking tragic."
We headed back to the others and said nothing, sharing our secret for the time being. Then we got back to work.
When I got back to the trailer I turned on the 22" TV we all shared and Gary, Reggie and I watched a news video that showed a few hundred people lined up in rows on the TBIT floor, they all coughed and wheezed and looked really sick. It was terrible. The announcer was stating that the CDC was confident that the situation was under control and that no fatalitys had been reported.
Not yet at least.
I gazed at the sick people and my heart broke. Human tragedy on any scale always saddened me and this was so real and so intense that it hurt to witness what was happening. I could see my family and my friends among the fallen and it made me realize just how precious life really was. Gary and Reggie watched with me and for once the three of us were quiet and somber. We passed around a bottle of Jack Daniels until it was gone.
I called Julia, she was fine and had already booked her flight for Wednesday afternoon. She was due to land at PBIA just after seven PM. Abigail and the kids were excited she was coming home. I felt better too. The crew from Louisiana was a big help today and it looked like my goal to be home by the weekend was going to be met. When I got done with Julia I called the kids. Abigail told me everything was great and there was nothing to worry about. Then she handed me to Joe Jr.
Joe was pretty excited, I guess his friend just got an XBox and the two of them would be able to play games together online. He told me school was fine, even though everyone in his class had to see the school nurse for a check up. He told me he wanted a dog too, and I couldn't help but think of poor Rufus when he said that. I promised him I'd think about it, but it was Mom who'd have to give the final approval there.
He handed me off to Suzette, who insisted that I would bring her a snowball and some icicles home so she could see it 'for real' as she put it. I tried to explain how impossible that was, then gave up, figuring I'd be able to fake it by picking up some crushed ice from the grocery store. Kids are funny sometimes. They were watching TV with Grammy and going to bed soon so she had to go. Abigail took the phone and said good night. I hung up and felt so freaking empty that my stomach ached.
The three of us played cards for an hour or so, then crashed. I've been laying here for at least an hour, but I'm starting to drift off now. I hope tomorrow is better than today was.
- Joe
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